- _I__ ' ■ ' Qhnon Monday, October 3,1994 Ptige 4 Nebraskan Editorial Board University of Nebraska-Lincoln JeffZelenv.Editor, 472-1766 Kara Morrison.Opinion Page Editor Angie Brunkow...Managing Editor Jeffrey Robb.Associate News Editor Rainbow Rowell.Columnist/Associate News Editor Kiley Christian. .Photography Director Mike Lewis..Copy Desk Chief James Mehsling.....Cartoonist Questionable tactics Classroom pressure cans Christensen Some high school students recently gave Congressional candi date Jon Christensen a lesson in ethics. Christensen showed a lack of knowledge in that area when he planted prepared questions with members of his audience at a public presentation. When Christensen spoke to a group Westside High government students Sept. 23, campaign organizers gave certain students in the class prepared questions to ask the Republican candidate. The chosen students worked for Christensen’s campaign. Students with prepared questions were then told to hold pens when they raised their hands so that Christensen would know whom to call on. Other Westside High students who got wind of the plan also clutched pens when they raised their hands, in an effort to confuse Christensen. It worked. Christensen, who has been running in a close congressional race with Democratic incumbent Peter Hoagland, showed a definite lack of integrity during the incident. To make things worse, Steve Thomlison, Christensen’s cam paign manager, merely said of the situation: “It was an opportunity *• to test our candidate in a pressure situation.” The test proved that most of the students had a hand upon:, . ethical behavior and that Christensen couldn’t handle the “pres sure” of a high school classroom discussion. He also proved he could be outwitted by a sharp group of teen agers. The students acted properly to expose and confuse the candidate. Joey Homstein, a senior in the Westside class who witnessed the incident, summed it up best: “If he can’t stand up to a roomful of 17-year-olds,” Homstein asked, “how is he going to stand up to the U.S. Congress?” Recently, in his hints that he may seek the presidency in 1996, Dan Quayle has apologized publicly for not being politically correct. He has said that though his views on family values are not in the majority, he will not change them. In recent years, political correctness has become a joke. We have let these so-called politically correct views run our lives. Politically correct thinking is usually not political and hardly ever correct; it is a smoke screen of innuendoes and twisted think ing. We have become a nation walking on eggshells because we don’t want to offend anyone. Because of the supersensitivity that comes with politically correct behavior, we are forced to identify and describe people by very technical and very asinine titles. Short people are now “height impaired” and old people are “youth impaired.” If you can’t find your way out of a paper bag, you are not a complete and utter idiot, you simply have an “intelligence deficiency.” We have let the person who can scream the loudest speak for all of us. It’s easy to go along with the crowd and not challenge the group consensus. However, we do have to keep one thing in mind; in the ’40s when Hitler decided to massacre people, Germany deemed it politically correct. — The Daily louan University of Iotva Staff editorials represent the official policy of the Fall 1994 Daily Nebraskan Policy is set by the Daily Nebraskan Rdilorial Hoard Rditorials do not necessarily reflect the views of the university, its employees, the students or the NU Hoard of Regents I ditorial columns represent the opinion of the author The regents publish the Daily Nebraskan. They establish the UNL Publications Hoard to supervise the daily production of the paper According to policy set by the regents, responsibility for the editorial content of the newspaper lies solely in the hands of its students The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the editor from all readers and interested others Letters will be selected for publication on the basis of clarity, originality, timeliness and sftacc available The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all material submitted. Readers also arc welcome to submit material as guest opinions. The editor decides whether material should run as a guest opinion. Letters and guest opinions sent to the newspaper become the property of the Daily Nebraskan and cannot be returned. Anonymous submissions will not be published Ixttcrs should included the author's name, year in school, major and group affiliation, if any. Requests to withhold names will not be granted. Submit material to the Daily Nebraskan. 34 Nebraska Union. 1400 R St., Lincoln. Neb. 68588-0448. NlfeUu ] jocose I WE., f -SOT . -- ^ Democrats I was extremely offended by Shane Tucker’s column (DN, Sept. 27, 1994$ concerning the Christensen/ Hoagland debate. His fruitless attempt to call the Dcrrxxratic Party “racist” is deplorable. Where has Shane Tucker been all his life? If he had any intelligence at all, he would knoig that the Democratic Party has written every civil rights bill in the 20th century. What have the Republicans brought us in the last half of the 2()th century? The McCarthy hearings, Watergate, Iran-Contra, a $4 tnllion debt, and let us not forget about gotnl Republicans like David Duke. The welfare system “racist”? With programs such as Head Start, Aid to Dependent Children and Medicare, the American welfare system is designed to be a handup, not a handout. It is people like Tucker, Christensen and Jan Stoney who are foes of change and equality. We need Democrats like Bob Kerrey to pick up the torch of a new generation, if only to keep it exit of the hands of the GOP hatemongers like Tucker. Greg Hale sophomore economics Whining I am writing this to correct the corrections made by Jerri Franklin and Christopher Thomas in their recent letter (DN, Sept. 28,1994). First, Mr. (Shekhar) Gupta (DN, Sept. 23,1994) was correct in his statement that Republicans were responsible for passing the crime bill, though I’m still not sure why. Sens. Chafec, Kassenbaum and other stray Republicans cast the decisive votes on the bill that most of the party felt was a watered-down piece of legislation drawn up only to help struggling incumbents gamer votes. Ifthe Democrats are so desperate for credit in passing the pork-bancl bill, let them have it. I am also confused about the two whining about what they considered to be “Republican obstruction.” What makes that any worse than, say, West Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller saying, “The American people arc going to get health care reform whether they want it or not,” when all the polls show that roughly 55 to 60 percent of the country didn’t want reform? Finally, I truly hope that Thomas and Franklin don’t really dislike Republican policies as much as it seems, because they’re in for a rude awakening. Nov. 8 will bring a Republican majority to the U.S. Senate for the first time in a decade, and with it an entire batch of conservative policies. I suppose then they would feel a major order of whining would be in order. Will Stanley freshman political science Amy Schmidt/DN Multiculturalism In response to Jamie Karl’s column ‘Traditional values will prevail” (DN, Sept. 30,19